Atelier E.B. and Penny Martin

Three Short Lectures

E Village / LES

Lucy McKenzie and Beca Lipscombe of Atelier E.B. join Penny Martin, editor in chief of the women’s fashion magazine The Gentlewoman, for an evening of discussion about their subjective relationship to clothing and the ways that they navigate the ever-intertwined worlds of fashion and art on their own terms.

LUCY MCKENZIE
“Just Because They’re Wearing a White Coat Doesn’t Mean You Have To Do What They Say”

Fashion has been a part of McKenzie’s visual art since she first made Soviet leotards as a student in Dundee. Yet rather than merely reference fashion imagery in her work, or allow it to be incorporated as a marketing device by the fashion establishment, she uses fashion – its history, economy, and aesthetics – to generate social events and fictional narratives. She will speak about the associations of the iconic white work coat, which are present in each Atelier E.B. collection and are worn by skilled painters, make-up counter women and scientists alike.

BECA LIPSCOMBE
“Looking at High Taste From a Low Place”

Lipscombe was a teenage Casual. Rejecting the conventional path offered to her as a respected emerging talent at Central St. Martin, London, she returned to Edinburgh after her training, a city with relatively no job opportunities for a young designer and founded her own independent label. She will speak about the life of specific Atelier E.B. garments, from their inspiration and manufacture to how they have been appropriated by others within the fashion industry.

PENNY MARTIN
“Elegant Refusal”

Penny Martin is a respected editor and writer, and noted within the fashion industry for her cerebral and considered point of view. Boasting a diverse career path traversing media, academia and photo curation. Martin worked alongside fashion luminaries Nick Knight and Peter Saville for seven years, editing their online fashion website SHOWstudio, and contributes to magazines such as W, The New York Times Style Magazine: T and Fantastic Man. She will speak about how creating something new and important in women’s publishing today requires a point of view that’s defined by what you don’t do. In discussing how The Gentlewoman has developed over its four years, she will focus on the importance of specificity and opinion versus random creativity.